The Lost Village – Episodes 1-3

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And so my spring writeups begin, starting with what is almost certainly the season’s weirdest production. Three episodes in, it’s still pretty tough to tell if The Lost Village is intentionally bad, accidentally bad, or some mix of the two, and even harder to say if the show’s going to end up being a great time or just a total mess. So far my curiosity is greater than my suspicion, but we’ll have to see how it goes when things get intentionally crazy. I feel like the main characters I’m invested in here are more Mizushima and Okada than any of The Lost Village’s internal inhuman caricatures, but hey, that can be fun too.

You can check out my very puzzled review over at ANN, or my episode three notes below!

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Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Episode 7

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Madoka Magica #7 opens with a furious Sayaka, stomping home after having learned the true nature of magical girls. The opening shots hide her feelings in shadow and low frames before they’re made clear through a pair of cuts, as Sayaka gently turns on her light and then angrily tosses the soul gem aside. Sayaka then she turns that anger on Kyubey, demanding to know why he didn’t tell her the truth. And of course, his answer is classic, ever-smiling Kyubey: “you never asked.”

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Aria: The Animation – Episode 1

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Aria certainly has a reputation – in fact, I’d say it stands besides K-On! as the most renowned slice of life series in anime. And even within the show’s first few minutes, it’s easy to see the exact kind of peaceful, slowly warming atmosphere this show is going for. We open with unseen characters speaking of the joy of meeting new people, contrasted against gorgeous backgrounds that feel almost like tiny oil paintings. A silly-looking cat-creature opens a window, simply to enjoy the breeze. Then a girl awakes, and groggily wonders at the window, still wiping the sleep from her eyes. It’s a very sleepy opening for a very peaceful show, the kind of show perfectly suited to watching as you crawl into bed.

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Spring 2016 – Week 2 in Review

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Well hell, Wednesday’s here already. I already covered most of the prior week’s episodes in my retrospective, but that didn’t hit any second episodes, so I guess I’ll make a week in review or something. Fortunately, this week’s second episodes were all definitely worth talking about – in fact, going forward, I’m guessing these posts will be getting pretty mountainous. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is hitting new peaks, My Hero Academia is demonstrating exactly what I find compelling about its premise, and Joker Game is shaping up to be a stylish and legitimately engaging thriller. This season is ridiculous. Let’s get right to it.

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Psycho-Pass 2 – Review

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Back once more into that dark place. I pretty much already knew this was going to be a painful experience based on my first attempted viewing, but this anime life isn’t all rainbows and sunshine. The show ended up being just as bad as I remembered, and its second half only became even worse, doubling down on its violent unpleasantness and just getting more incoherent as it went along. I found myself consistently wondering what the show’s director and other staff must have thought when they received these scripts. Was it just impossible time-wise to demand rewrites? It is almost difficult to write a story this poorly.

Anyway. You can check out my very thorough review over at ANN, or my episode notes below.

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Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju – Review

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And here’s my review of the winter season’s clear star, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. Rakugo is clearly a very impressive show, and its direction couldn’t be better, but I still found myself with some misgivings about the overall production. It’s weird, because I’ve seen plenty of people talking about how emotional the show’s final episodes made them, but Rakugo just did almost nothing for me on that level. I tried to sort out my feelings in the review, but it’s still something that leaves me a little stumped.

You can check out my full review over at ANN!

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju

Spring 2016 – Virtually Every First Episode Retrospective

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This season is incredibly dangerous, you guys. I know first weeks are always misleading, and that at least a few shows generally fall apart soon after a strong premiere, but there are just so many good shows in so many genres that I feel I’m finally going to be buried in cartoons. There are tons of great action shows, plenty of diverse comedies, dramas and slice of lifes and Concrete Revolutio besides. It really does feel like there’s something for everyone this season – not only is it a diverse crop, but the best shows are scattered across a wide range of potential tastes.

That said, there are certainly both winners and losers among this group, and busy anime consumer that you are, I’m sure you don’t have the time to sift for the best of them. So as usual, I’ll be breaking down this season’s premieres into distinct, precisely calibrated categories, starting with the shows to celebrate and moving on through to the shows that punished me for daring to live. All the links on the show names lead to the ANN preview guide pages, where you can find my more extensive thoughts on every single one under Nick Creamer. I’m sure you’ve got a lot to do, so let’s cut the preamble here and RUN ‘EM DOWN!

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She and Her Cat -Everything Flows- – Review

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Having gotten quite a number of recommendations for it, I finally went back and checked out the season’s secret gem, the new version of She and Her Cat. The Makoto Shinkai version of this story isn’t particularly noteworthy, but this new one is excellent, which isn’t that surprising – it features a top-tier director handling material perfectly suited to his strengths. Daru is one of the most believably animated animals I’ve seen, and the overall story is wonderfully understated and beautifully atmospheric. It’s barely a time commitment at all, either, so it’s definitely worth a look.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below!

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Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Episode 6

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It turns out deals with devils generally aren’t the most reliable bargains. The consequences of Sayaka’s choice begin to pile up in this episode, as her rescue by Homura only seems to prolong the inevitable. Sayaka’s self-image and motivations are fundamentally incompatible with the nature of a magical girl; the more she struggles, the worse things become. And Kyubey knows this, and always knew this, but he doesn’t care – Sayaka herself is not important to him. Sayaka is leverage, one more tool moving him closer to his actual prey.

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Legend of the Galactic Heroes – Episode 56

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Legend of the Galactic Heroes doesn’t impress its worldview on the viewer through single dramatic speeches, or rousing moments in the heat of battle. It’s constructed not as a war epic, but as a historical chronicle, and its cynicism towards the great acts of men carries the great fatigue only a long-view perspective can bring. Men may inspire others to action, and even rule over their fellows for a time. Men can commit great and terrible acts, and their names can occasionally become renowned enough to be remembered. But men die, and the world moves on. History is larger than our capacity to make it.

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